It’s no secret that the insights provided by a robust CRM implementation can help organizations glean knowledge into how customers are interacting with their brand, what types of messages are most effective, and how to create differentiated campaigns tailored to specific customer tastes. However, as a result of the booming growth of the Internet of Things (IoT), customers are now relying on more devices and channels that ever to communicate with brands, and as such, are leaving a massive data trail behind with each interaction.
While almost every customer touchpoint includes information that can be used to a company’s advantage, some business intelligence is more data rich than others, and what may not be deemed important by one company—for instance, online shopping cart abandonment rates—may be indeed critical to another. Organizing the vast amounts of unstructured data can prove overwhelming if proper strategies are not in place to ensure the golden nuggets of true customer value are not lost amid the shuffle.
While on the surface this seems like an easy enough task, a recent report from the CMO Council found that even with access to a broad amount of customer information, only six percent of marketers claim to be extremely effective at crafting compelling messages and delivering measurable campaigns. Key ways to successfully optimize data to deliver targeted outreach efforts include:
Leverage Web and Social Data to Prioritize and Segment
It’s not uncommon for companies to segment customers and markets by likelihood to convert, but today’s digital innovation makes it possible for marketing executives to take this practice one step further by tracking how often a customer engages with a brand’s web site or social media site. This data can then be stored in a central CRM database, where teams can prioritize leads and accounts based on who’s buying, who’s actively exploring a brand’s online presence, and who’s not as interested.
Personalize Campaigns to Boost Response Rates
Gone are the days when an impersonal, mass-produced marketing message could be relied on to pique customer interest. Prospects today demand personalization, and can easily switch brand loyalties if they don’t feel special or valued. Companies can leverage CRM to easily identify customer preferences, buying habits, and points of interest, all of which can be used to create compelling campaigns tailored to each recipient.
Compare Channels to Identify Star Performers
As more and more companies adopt an omnichannel approach to customer engagement, it can be helpful to determine which specific channel provides the highest rate of return for your organization so your efforts can be more wisely focused. One way to achieve this is to set up a specific campaign for each CRM channel, using a custom URL for each to easy tracking, then perform an analysis of which ones worked the best, helping to inform future marketing investments.
Use Contact Roles to Better Direct Outward-Facing Communication
One essential way to keep project and customer data organized is to enable the use of contact roles within your CRM software. This tool allows team members to direct specific messages to certain people at prospective organizations, ensuring discussions are appropriate and increasing sales team adoption.
At its core, CRM software is designed to facilitate smoother, more effective customer relationships, and a natural output of such functionality is a deeper understanding of client and prospect behavior, tastes, and trends. Sorting through this information doesn’t have to be overwhelming—with the right processes in place to optimize communications across every employee interaction, you can easily turn data from unstructured to usable, boosting campaign performance and ROI.
Sources:
Bluewolf: “4 Must-Have Ingredients For Higher Campaign ROI,” April 6, 2015,
http://www.bluewolf.com/blog/4-must-have-ingredients-higher-campaign-roi.
Shein, Esther, “Marketers Have Incomplete View Of SMB Customers: CMO Council,” CMO, January 23, 2014.
NOTE FROM THE PRESIDENT
